The present invention relates to a method of unloading products off a continuously-moving conveyor.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a method of transferring products from a conveyor, by which the products are conveyed at substantially constant speed along a given path, to an unloading station located in a fixed position along said path and defined by a passage facing the conveyor, and preferably the input passage to a further conveyor.
The present invention is especially suitable for use on cigarette manufacturing machines, particularly packing machines, to which the following description refers purely by way of example.
Known cigarette packing machines present an output conveyor unit comprising a first and second conveyor cooperating at a given point of tangency, and a third conveyor having an input passage facing a portion of the second conveyor.
The first conveyor normally consists of a packing wheel having a number of peripheral seats, which, as the wheel is rotated about its axis, are fed through a loading station where each seat is fed with a packing blank and a preformed group of cigarettes.
Each blank is folded partially in a U about the group as it is inserted inside the seat, and is gummed as required and gradually folded by the packing wheel into a semifinished packet, which is normally completed by a final folding operation as the packet is transferred from the packing wheel to a respective seat on the second conveyor.
The second conveyor normally consists of stabilizing conveyor along which the gummed portions of each packet are at least partially dried for achieving a firm shape of the packet.
The third conveyor normally consists of a drying conveyor of such a length as to allow complete drying of the adhesive materials.
On known packing machines of the aforementioned type, the second conveyor is normally step-operated, so that no difficulty is encountered in transferring the packets from the second conveyor to the input passage of the third conveyor, which is effected in the interval between one step of the conveyor and the next.